Searching
by ToxicTreacle
Summary: All Cream wanted to do was find Cheese... One-Shot.


She wandered about, alone in the darkness as she pushed on.

The cobblestone ground she was walking along was old, and rotting, close to extremely dilapidated; every single moment, it felt as if the floor would fall through. The walls were lined with thick grime, yet were clean enough not to allow the torches to rot away; said objects flickered ominously in the darkness, their flames barely illuminating the damp, dreary corridor.

The girl blinked curiously, moving her stray gaze upwards towards a hole in the roof, which led her to witness the bright, sparkling sky. Though, such a thing dwindled, and was already gone in a second.

White, ghostly figures filled her eye-sight, and the Mobian covered her mouth to bring a small gasp to a halt as she silently prodded along, trying not to draw attention to herself as she regarded them with petrified awe.

Steadily, she looked on, slightly unnerved at the previous paranormals.

"**Rggh… RRROOOOGGHHHHHH!"**

There was a terrible howl, and a bone-like creature floated along the ceiling's hole at the peak of tower, allowing the poor dear to gain full view of the atrocity above her.

"Oh, no… Oh, no, no!" she gasped, then swiftly wrapped her hands around her mouth, to prevent herself from speaking any further. She clung to the wall, watching, petrified, as the odd thing looked down. She closed her eyes, tight. '_Got to be brave… Momma told me to be brave… Be brave, be brave… Don't move!_'

Less than a minute passed, (which seemed like an incredibly long time for the little one,) and monster shot out of view.

Within seconds, the kid took her chance, let her hands drop, and ran as fast as her legs could carry her, her tiny heart beating a mile a minute as did so.

As she left the bottom of the tower and entered a corridor once more, she felt her heart rate regain itself once more; she clasped her hands behind her back, unsure of what to do, but still holding the exact knowing fact of her mission.

"O-oh… I hope I find Cheese, soon," the infant whispered, recollecting her thoughts as she tried to figure out which way her friend had gone.

She took another step.

"**Hee, hee, hee, hee!"**

Mischievous laughter filled the air, leaving the small one to jump back out of surprise as a figure emerged from above. She covered her eyes with her tiny, gloved hands, fearing whatever was in front of her; whatever Dr. Eggman's castle had in store for her wasn't good.

When a silence dawned across the area, she moved one hand away, peeking open one eye.

Cream found herself face-to-face with the most horribly cliché enemy known to man and Mobian alike...

A pumpkin.

She blinked, dumbfounded, unable to find words to speak as she took a brisk step forward. A moment ago, it was giggling with such glee, and now, it was as quiet as a mouse.

Hesitantly, a glove closed the distance between the creature and the youngster, then withdrew, leaving nothing to spite the decoration but that very inquisitiveness that had brought the girl this way.

"Hello?" she asked, looking up with bright, brown eyes at the string supporting the Halloween-ish figure. It took her a moment to realize there was no string; however, there was, though, not entirely visible as one would have thought. Assuming to descendent from above was a real being, the rabbit gave a small smile, which was as innocent as that of a pre-schooler. "Hello~!"

The imaginary person said nothing, belittling her greeting with the iridescent candle inside its head.

Confused even further, the child tilted her head, tugging at the pumpkin's long, purple, dress-like clothing. "Hey, mister? Can you talk…?"

That dull silence was all that answered her, and she concluded the strange one couldn't speak like she could.

"…Are you lost?" The question slipped out of her mouth quicker, and more fearful, than Cream had hoped; she at least wished her companion could stick around for a little while, show her around, or at least keep her company… this place unnerved her more than Knuckles' exaggerated ghost stories of previous adventures, (though, sometimes, when they were toned down, she found herself curious of the spectacles,). Finding her courage, she gave a request-like solution, "If you wanted to… we could go together!"

Again, the other replied with its same sentence. Nothing.

She stepped forward slowly, looking up at the stencil-like holes in its head, watching the dancing flame with heightened interest.

The smaller one watched that flame for a few more seconds, watching it spit at the sides of the owner's head. And, before she knew it, the possessor of those bright, sinister eyes grinned eerily at her.

"**HEE, HEE, HEE, HEE!"**

The infant jumped back, shocked as she saw the odd object fly upwards and surge out of view, never to be seen again.

Her ears drooped sadly. "O-oh… I guess… that person didn't want to come… but..." she found herself trailing once more, and she sulked, trudging forward as realization met sorrow… She felt alone yet again. Had it been on the city streets, anyone would've stopped to give her a hug.

'_I wish Momma was here…_' she thought, shuffling along the cobblestone as she began pacing herself.

For a second, she heard something. Something that remotely reminded her of something crumbling...

The floor seemed to make such horrible noises under her feet, and she was scarcely lucky they overtook the horrible sounds outside, (which consisted of robots throwing about rock-like grenades lit with fire, machinery malfunctioning or beeping, inhumane grunting, and a high-pitched screech from those alien-like birds,).

"Hmm…" She came to a stop, attentive to the severely large crack in the floor, which stretched a few good steps ahead of her. Despite its small distance, it leaned perilously to both sides, proving it difficult for one to step along it without receiving a jump-scare.

Cream looked to the side, seeing stone boarding along the wall, but then, she looked up, realizing she could easily fly across. Choosing the easy option should be a piece of cake.

…At least, she thought it was to be.

Her ears flapped in a swift motion, and she lifted herself off the ground, now in a hovering state as she crossed the cracked floor.

Just as all was going well, there was something Cream didn't expect again.

"**...RRROOOOGGHHHHHH!"**

As if bolting up at a nightmare, the bunny lost the balance needed to propel herself, and dropped to the floor. There was a terrifying, '**CRACK**,' and the ground had already proven it was unable to support her weight as she slammed down on it. There was a whimper of pain, and the floor buckled under her, shaking as it came crumbling down, Cream along with it.

Before she could be lost to the endless, red skies, Cream shot one hand at the base board of the stone wall, only just managing to grip it with her frightened, trembling fingers. Warily, she lifted her other hand, hoping to avoid fate as soon as possible.

Below her, that ghostly abomination whizzed by again, causing fear and increasing panic to dawn on the youngster. She scrambled to try and pull herself up, but the grime on the ledge proved too much for her hands: they were as slippy as ice could be.

No longer relishing at the thought of searching for Cheese on her own, Cream resorted to screaming with callouts, "AMY?! …CHEESE?! …**MOMMA…**?!" her hands were shuddering violently, slipping from their grasp on the base board, "Somebody… anybody… **puh-puh-please**!"

"**RRROOOGHAAAOOOOOROOOGHHHHAAA!"**

Immediately, she jumped up and flapped her ears out of sheer fright, only to be relieved when she found herself on the baseboard once more.

The monstrosity on the underside of the corridor was no where to be seen as the girl stepped cautiously along the border. Following the tragic event, Cream finally made it to the other side.

After walking for what seemed to be hours, she strode to another barrier of the building, which had a lighter color in comparison to her earlier surroundings. The grime and muck was less so here than it was back there.

Blinking, she observed her obstacle for a moment, before stepping forward to reach out towards it. Her foot slipped on an indentation in the ground, and she tripped, falling forward before stopping herself with the old, fairly-different wall.

"Oooof… That hurt…."

Hoisting herself back up, the young rabbit turned to the fault in the floor with a sense of her thoughtful nature. Tentatively, she bent down, and, almost knowingly, touched the individual tile.

To her surprise, it gave an awkward click, and the female pushed harder, causing it to bounce upwards, like an ejecting button.

_**CRE-E-E-EAK…!**_

Her gaze shot to the door behind her, and she found it had disappeared, replaced by a door way.

Feeling she was finally getting somewhere and re-doing her blue tie, Cream straightened, turned around and headed along the chosen path, only to come face-to-face with… yeah, you guessed it:

Another strange pumpkin.

And another dead end, except, due to a rock collapse.

The wall behind her slid shut, unbeknownst to the rabbit, who watched as the creepy life-like ornament laughed at her predicament.

"**HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!"**

Cream flashed a look behind, finding herself trapped, and then placed her hands on her hips, giving a scolding look which her mother sometimes used in times that required great discipline. "Now, Mr. Pumpkin! It's not nice to laugh when bad things happen to people!" she pointed out, as-a-matter-of-factly, in a tone that would even put a demonic abomination in his place. "In fact, you should be trying to help that person! Not laugh at them!"

"**HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!"**

It gave no heed to her claims, and continued laughing.

_Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap…_

Cream whirled her head around the stranger to see the bottom of another barrier moving, and she could see sharp, curled talons poking out of the rubble. She monitored the odd movement for at least a few more seconds, and by then, the pumpkin thing had already stopped laughing at her.

Strangely, it was solemn… until it shot upwards, as fast as a chicken running.

The rabbit, noticing this, looked up to see the abnormal thing disappear into the ceiling, and, once it did, the said part of the room rippled like a bowl of inhuman, wobbly jelly.

_**BOOM! CRASH! CRUMBLE!**_

The wall fell through, and debris shot everywhere as weird-looking, red worms wriggled about, snapping their, what now seemed clear to Cream, sharp, talon-like teeth, which were dying to cut their meals like razors.

At least two of them entered the room, waiting for the flesh to finally reach their stomachs, (if they actually possessed one…).

But, unfortunately, they didn't get any; the infant was already flying over them, and into another room to avoid harm.

This new room had a different shape to that long, rectangle corridor, holding many different sides, including that of the newly-broken wall, and the other alcoves, one would call it an irregular shape. On one side, a massive, threatening, violet-glowing spider decoration plastered the light bricks, and why someone would pick that over a nice, not-intimidating butterfly was beyond Cream. There were four alcoves in total, including that one that'd been smashed a moment ago.

She glanced about the room, finding nothing of her interest or intentions; she was looking for Cheese, not decorations that were meant to scare her to death.

It was then that she noticed the big box in the middle of the room, which was labeled with a huge, red dot, which, to anyone's guess, could mean, 'TNT,'.

Cream, however, didn't know what to call it; she just knew she had to stay away from it, and just as she was about to step away, she noticed one of those repulsive, red worms near it… and it seemed think that was lunch…

As if she actually expected the thing to have a more functional mind, her voice hollered, "No, wait, Mr. Worm! Don't eat th—!"

**BOOM!**

Darkness swallowed Cream's vision for a second as she was sent flying back into one of the side-rooms, and the most dreaded thing she heard were rocks crumbling down on her only way out. She stood, ignoring the bruises surrounding her limbs, and walked towards the barrier with a hint of dread.

The doorway had been completely filled with rotting rocks and steel-hard stones.

Her hands attempted to push one of the many boulders out of the way, but it was no use.

The debris had fallen so badly, that all forms of her resistance were nothing to it. Not to mention, if she actually moved something at the bottom, the top would surely cave in on her.

There wasn't much she could do.

Stepping back, the girl slid down the back wall, sitting down and gripping her knees as she waited for the impossible:

For someone to rescue her.

**s-S-s**

An ebony hedgehog stepped into the room, holding a weapon of some sort. Beside him, hovered a machine, displaying a rotund man sporting a massive moustache.

"I wonder how my robots are doing!"

"…Doctor, I'm starting to wonder if your IQ is actually imaginative; you've already said that five times."

"Yes, well, er… I need to make conversation, Shadow! That, and, er… You wouldn't listen to me if I didn't make a fuss out of it!"

"I've no choice but to listen to you since the start of this mission… Because your irritating piece of machinery… it constantly stalks me... or, rather, you do."

"Well, I can't be around to do it! I have stuff to do! Evil science-y stuff and what-not, involving super weapons, and weapons of mass destruction, and robot tinkering, and more weapons, and even more weapons, and killing blue hedgehogs, and sub-sandwiches to finally achieve my goal of WORLD DOMINATION! MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! …*Cough*… **MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**! …Oh, and my 'other' goal of giving you your memories back, not fake, of course!"

"…"

The black hedgehog wondered if Eggman had truly lost his sanity.

"…**Hello?"**

Shadow came to halt, perking an ear as he checked his surroundings.

"Eh? What's up, Shadow?"

The hedgehog walked over to a pile of debris, and looked at it silently. Bending down on one knee, he picked up a piece of the rubble, finding it smoking and crumpled as he rubbed it between his thumb and his index finger.

After previous events, he easily recognized this, "TNT."

On-screen, Eggman looked non-chalant, clasping his hands as he feigned shock. "TNT?! In MY wondrous castle?! Why, who DARES defy my devious reputation with…"

Shadow deadpanned, "It's all right, Doctor. I know it's you."

"Er… ahem, yes. Well, it's only natural you should!" The Doctor threw his hands in the air, out of exasperation. "Alas, I must admit it! The GREAT Doctor Eggman has been hiding TNT in his castle!"

The Ultimate Lifeform rolled his crimson eyes, and then pulled himself up, standing back a little as he loaded his favored gun, the Shadow Rifle. With one swift shot, the wall crumbled pitifully to the ground, and he peered through the smoke, trying to see what was actually behind there.

A silhouette rushed through the dust, and Shadow went stiff as he felt arms wrap around him. His eyes strained to look down.

Cream the Rabbit was hugging him, tears dripping from her eyes out of sheer terror.

"It was so scary, here… There were monsters! And these horrible worms! They…"

"Oh, who brought the blubbering rabbit in here?" Eggman asked irritably, as he leaned back in a bored manner. "Shadow, be rid of this pest and we'll be on our way."

Cream, ignoring the fact that the owner of the castle was in her presence, looked up, seeing a rigid expression. "Mr. Shadow… thank you. I thought I'd never, ever see Momma again! But then… I told myself that someone would rescue me! Like you, Shadow, or Amy, or Sonic…" she progressively went silent as Shadow reverted to glare at the mention of his rival's name. Still hugging him tightly, she moved her gaze away from his, to the door. "There's this… terrible, terrible… monster, Mr. Shadow…"

Robotnik huffed. "Well! That's not very nice, Cream."

"Oh, mister, I wasn't talking about y…" Finally noticing him, the rabbit stepped back, no longer hugging Shadow and eyeing the floating machine inquisitively. She gasped slightly. "Dr. Eggman?!"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure we all know each other," said person rolled his eyes, before folding his arms and glaring at the hedgehog. "Hurry up, Shadow! We have fires to light!"

Those large, hazel eyes watched Shadow as he turned away and aimed to walk to the door. "Mr. Shadow! Wait!"

The black blur came to a halt, and closed his eyes. "Your friend is waiting outside."

"Huh…?"

"Why don't you go for a chit-chat with her? Unlike you… I have more important things to do."

"But, Mr. Shadow… What about Cheese…?"

"If I come across this, 'Cheese,'… Humph… well, we'll see, won't we? Depends if I'm busy… Either way, don't get your hopes up, rabbit." As fast as he'd stopped, Shadow began walking again.

Cream narrowed her eyes, and ran up to the other, standing in front of him with a stern frown. "Are you saying you'll leave Cheese cold and alone in this empty, big castle?! With that big, scary monster?!"

"Isn't it obvious enough, already?" Shadow maintained his cold poker face. "I don't have time for going around and retrieving lost pets."

"Cheese isn't a pet! He's my friend!" She hefted a big, pointy finger at Shadow's nose, an action that was shocking for her laws of mannerism. "And, you, Mr. Shadow! You're a meanie!"

Shadow eyed Cream a moment, glaring at her coldly as he reloaded his gun.

A silence passed, and Cream and Shadow glared at each other in their respective manners. And Eggman, well, he grabbed some popcorn for this drama. And a sub-sandwich.

The black hedgehog aimed the gun at the rabbit's head, and clicked the trigger.

Cream watched, wide-eyed and fearful of the weapon.

Shadow slowly brought his aim upwards.

**BANG!**

The door behind fell to pieces, and the ebony creature stared at her one last time.

"Fine. I'll find this, 'Cheese,'."

The moment he spoke those words, Cream beamed, her eyes wide with cheer as she gave the hedgehog another hug. "Thank you, Mr. Shadow! Thank you so much!"

He stiffened again, and pushed the rabbit away, gritting his fangs. He growled, "Stop. Hugging. Me."

"Ooops… Sorry!" Cream jumped back, slightly awkward as she twirled her shoe in the floor. "Oh… Please be careful, Mr. Shadow. I mean it. That monster was really, really, really scary! I don't want it getting any of my friends!"

Eggman quirked a brow. "Monster, eh? Don't think I ordered one of those…"

'_Friends_…?'

Shadow watched her for a moment, and then, surprisingly, acknowledged her statement with a nod.

The rabbit watched with hope as the hedgehog stepped through the door, armed with a Shadow Rifle.

'_Oh, please, please, Mr. Shadow… Find Cheese… And… be safe, too!_'

**s-S-s**

**Blimey, this took forever! Finally got it done!**

**Anyway, if any of you have played Cryptic Castle on Shadow the Hedgehog, this is basically a fan-made back-story to how Cream got stuck behind that wall. I don't think it could've been deliberate, unless Eggman decided to randomly kidnap kids.**

**Anyways, hope ya' liked it! **

**Any reviews would be greatly appreciated. :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story. All rights and characters go to SEGA.**


End file.
